drinking with syringe

armando

Member
my cham wasnt really using his dripper, so with a lot of patience I teached him how to drink from syringe...
I`ve heard that I should be very careful because he could aspirate...
Just wondering... what would happen if he does?
Im worried about this
 
Just use your syringe to drip on his mouth and he will get the idea.
You don't need to stick the tip into his mouth.

A better way to get them to drink is to simulate rain drops over their head with a spray bottle set to 'coarse' spray and filled with warm water.
Spray in short 'bursts' over his head so the drops will come down directly
on top of his head, don't over do it.

After a minute or so (better have a full bottle!!) you will see him start to work his mouth open and close.
Continue until he stops working his mouth are starts to wander off.

My montanes have their favorite position to get in when they rain starts coming down.
They will position themselves under the water in such a way to maximize the flow going into their mouth.

They also do not need to fully open their mouth to get water.
If you dripper a drop of water on the seam of the closed mouth, you will see the water drop soak right into the seam of the mouth.

Try it sometime, I have only seen this with montanes
 
I used to do something like that to teach him...
I dropped drops of water in the front of the head and he started to drink after a while..
after a couple of days he would just get close to the syringe and start drinking from it...
but yesterday I was giving him water and something really strange happened...
I saw something didnt go right and he Suddenly started to shot his tongue to nowhere... the tong went back and forth for about 3 times!!!
I WAS getting hysterical! I couldnt believe I could have do some harm to him!!
after this he went back to normal, and he actually eat some insects...
I decided to stop doing this, I will just go with the dripper and let him drink whenever he wants to, I dont want to hurt him...
can something go wrong if he inhale a bit of water?
 
If a cham opens his mouth wide enough, you can see directly into his lungs.
So it would be easy to accidently get something in the lungs.
Weather a little water would bother them or not, I don't know, but I have seen videos of chams 'swimming' so I know they must be breathing in some water in the wild w/o harm.

I would not worry about small amounts, and they can cough stuff back up if they have to.
 
Thank you... I will calm dow a bit..
sometimes I get really paranoid with my pets...
I will just calm down and see any strange signs..
This happened yesterday...
 
One thing i always do is never point the syringe in the mouth!
i will position it so it hits the seem from the side or down from above,
but never pointed in...
 
Great I will keep that in mind...
He seemed normal today..
I was really worried because I saw him with his mouth opened today in the morning..
but sometimes he yawns and stuff like that, and keeps his mouth open for a little time..
he has always done that, but today I was really paranoid..
I called all day long from work to my house to see if he was with his mouth opened or any strange symptoms.. and he was just normal all day long...
When I came home, I spent about an hour or two watching him and he seemed just fine
:I will keep an eye on him tomorrow
 
Learning Proper Care Is Key

Ever been micro-managed at work by a boss or yours ... stressed ya out, maybe pissed ya off huh ..... same for chams I ve noticed . Learn what to do and keep the same routines in place and dont over do it or your animal is most likely gonna become stressed a bit. Good Luck
 
My guy also only drinks from a syringe! Here's my thread on it with some pics: https://www.chameleonforums.com/drinking-syringe-100221/
The way to prevent aspiration is to only offer water when he's ready for it. If he doesn't stick his tongue out to drink then I don't squirt any. The risk with aspiration is that is can cause pneumonia by having fluid in the lungs. My panther aspirated pretty bad once with a squirt bottle, but luckily he did not have any bad effects from it. The trick is to be careful and know when to stop.
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